People Cause Data Loss

Software vendor Kroll Ontrack’s recent survey reveals a disconnect between the perceptions and realities of how people backup and recover their data.

In an article on the IT Jungle website, Alex Woodie says the survey found that human error is the cause for 40 percent of the cases of data loss, compared to 29 percent for hardware or system failures. That’s a staggering increase from 11 percent in a 2005 study and indicates big changes in how we interact with computers, says the article.

Rather than passively hope that systems won’t fail, said Todd Johnson, vice president of data recovery operations at Kroll Ontrack, people must “take proactive measures to ensure the individuals operating the storage system have current training, working redundancies, and a continuity plan that is current and accessible in the event of a loss.”

One caveat to the 40 percent human error figure was that four out of 10 survey respondents “believed” the cause of data loss to be human error and only 27 percent were absolutely sure.